Why Keeping a 3-Year-Old Around Is Fun

Jack had two quotable moments in the last 24 hours that I wanted to share.

The first was last night, when I was putting him to bed and there was a giant shining object in the sky that I presumed was Venus peeking in the window at us. It was the only thing visible through the haze of the clouds, and it was quite impressive. The discussion of Venus propelled us further into a discussion about ALL of the planets, which Jack listed as: "Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Arus*, Earth, Pluto..." He was distracted by my giggling, so he didn't make it all the way through.

I regretted to inform Jack that Pluto was no longer a planet, and he seemed to understand the idea of tiny, or dwarf, "planets" vs. big ones. He started asking me other questions like, "Which one is the blue one?" (I answered Venus and that seemed good to him) and stated, "Mars is the red one," and, "Saturn has the red spot on it" (I corrected this one). I guessed that Uranus was the "purple one" and had no answer as to which planet was the black one.

Finally, he told me simply that aliens live on Mars, and I told him that no one lived on Mars. The following conversation took place after that:

Jack: "Someday they'll build cities on Mars and there will be diggers. And God."
Me: "Who?"
Jack: "God"
Me: "What does God do?"
Jack: "He makes things. He made me."
Me: "Who told you that?"
Jack: "You did."
Me: "Oh"**
Jack: "So, they will build cities on Mars and God will be there. And Digger Man."
Me: "Sounds like a plan."

* Arus is a planet in the cartoon series, Voltron.
** I may have said this, but not because I believe it. So, it's funny that it stuck.

The second amusing thing was tonight when Jack was playing with a balloon he got after his hair cut. It floated up to the ceiling and Jack said, "Adios!" I asked, "Do you know what adios means?" He knew it meant goodbye, and I don't recall ever teaching him this (I've limited my instruction to colors and numbers and fruits because I'm lazy) so I quizzed him further as to where he learned this.

His answer? "I learned it from Dora. I speak Spanish," in the most deadpan tone possible. Like he had to dumb it down for me because it's so painfully obvious that "he speaks Spanish" and I obviously was too dense to realize. Have I mentioned that he's just like Kyle?